Not-So Fine Whine, From the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco

 

The Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT) bills itself as “the only professional association dedicated exclusively to the support of researchers, academics, treatment professionals, government employees, and the many others working across disciplines in the field of nicotine and tobacco research.” 

The organization claims that it advances the field of nicotine and tobacco research by working with groups including the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Control and Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and the National Institute on Drug Abuse.  While those relationships are appropriate, SRNT’s bragging about its “close relationships” with the Truth Initiative, the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids (CTFK), the Association for the Treatment of Tobacco Use Dependence, and the American Cancer Society is unseemly, given those groups’ open hostility to any research or data supportive of nicotine, tobacco or tobacco harm reduction.

Responding to the CDC losing $310 million for its Office on Smoking and Health (OSH), SRNT published a “Nicotine & Tobacco Research Community Call to Action.”

The call to action links to a CTFK letter, dated April 30, that argues for continued CDC OSH funding: “The elimination of CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health would have a profoundly negative impact on our nation’s efforts to reduce the death and disease caused by tobacco…OSH has provided grants to all 50 states and territories to support tobacco prevention and cessation programs. Comprehensive state and local tobacco control programs…OSH has provided funding to state quitlines…With $310 million, CDC will be able to address the challenges posed by e-cigarettes…”

Stated more accurately, if the CDC loses this funding, it will no longer be able to pursue its stated goal of achieving nationwide tobacco prohibition.

SRNT emphasizes the prime reason they support continued funding for their CDC piggybank: “More than ever, we need to explain how tobacco impairs health, why people continue to use tobacco, and what can be done to reduce tobacco-related deaths.”  

In reality

 The only tobacco use that impairs health is smoking;

2.  People use tobacco because it is pleasant and satisfying; and,

3   We can reduce tobacco-related deaths by reducing smoking. 

This bit of federal spending reduction may actually promote public health, “more than ever.”

 

Home Schooling Suppresses High School Vaping & Smoking

 

Following my blog post last week about the 2021 National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS), there was a lot of discussion among colleagues about the fact that roughly half of the students responded to the survey from home due to the Covid pandemic, while the other half filled it out at school.  According to the CDC (here), “Youths who reported participating in the 2021 NYTS in a school building or classroom reported a higher prevalence of e-cigarette use compared with youths participating at home or at some other place.”  That makes sense.  Teens restricted to their homes were probably not using any drugs as frequently as teens at school.  The bottom line is that this change in survey location during 2021 might have affected prevalence estimates.

Note that while the first two columns in the chart are identical to those in last week’s chart, the last two columns underscore the importance of where the survey was completed.  Students who took the survey at school reported prevalence rates for smoking, vaping and dual use that were twice those for students who responded from home.

There is still good news here.  Even the higher smoking and vaping rates among school survey takers are lower than the rates in 2020, so the decline in both behaviors is real.

In all seriousness, I want to add this cautionary note.  Given that there is no limit to the legislation, regulation and litigation that anti-tobacco zealots will employ, I would not be surprised to see Campaign For Tobacco Free Kids, Truth Initiative and others start lobbying for all American teens to be home-schooled in the months ahead.

 

Harm Reduction Strategies: REVISED Truth Initiative InfoGraphic

 

Recently, the tobacco-prohibitionist Truth Initiative published an infographic proclaiming that the tobacco industry has co-opted tobacco harm reduction (THR) in a dastardly plot to “expand its user base and grow the total market for nicotine products.”

In fact, the Initiative itself is co-opting THR, as I explain in the revision at left.